President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressive Congress (APC) have been criticised by the governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for turning the Presidential villa, which belongs to all Nigerians, into the new APC headquarters, where coerced PDP members are being paraded at intervals.
The criticisim was contained in the communique issued at the end of the party’s governors forum, which held in Bauchi, Bauchi State on 26th July 2021.
According to the communique, the meeting deliberated once again on the state of the nation, reviewed the deteriorating state of Nigeria’s democracy, the economic and security situation in the country, the state of the PDP as the main opposition platform in Nigeria.
On the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the governors identified with the need for a free, fair and credible elections in the country and called on the National Assembly to entrench Electronic transmission of results of elections in the nation’s electoral jurisprudence.
The governors requested Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the only body empowered by the Constitution to conduct elections, to deploy appropriate technologies necessary to ensure that the votes of every Nigerian is counted and made to count.
They further called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), especially, the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NIGCOMSAT), Telephone Companies (Telcos) and all relevant stakeholders to ensure that universal access and service of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are provided especially in rural, un-served and under-served areas of the country before the 2023 General elections.
The governors also condemned the attempt to foist on all political parties, one method of conducting primaries, that is, by DIRECT METHOD ONLY, through the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, noting that the “method is prone to massive rigging, as evidenced by a situation where President Buhari scored about 15 million votes in the 2018 APC Direct Primaries only to score 15 million votes from the entire country in the 2019 General Election.”
They further advised that political parties should be allowed to decide whether to use direct or indirect method of conducting primaries as part of internal democracy in political parties.
The governors reiterated, once again, the need for the NNPC and other revenue generating agencies of Government to strictly abide by the Constitution by remitting all their Revenue less cost of Production into the Federation Account as provided for by S.162 of the Constitution.
They also condemned the use of “underhand tactics to arm twist some PDP Governors and other stakeholders to join the APC, a political party that has wrecked Nigeria’s economy, turned Nigeria into a killing field and has nothing to offer Nigerians but misery and bad governance.”
On Nigeria’s economy, the PDP governors admonished the APC Federal Government to collaborate more with state governments to stem the unemployment scourge affecting the youths of Nigeria, through technology and increased production in all fields of endeavour, reiterating that “government should stop paying lip service on the Ease of Doing Business, as foreign direct investments have continued to fall partly due to obstacles placed on foreign companies wishing to invest in Nigeria. A glaring example is that of FACEBOOK who insisted on investing in Nigeria rather than Ghana, and is being frustrated by regulatory authorities.”
Concerning the security of lives and properties, the governors reiterated that “it is time to bring the activities of bandits, kidnappers and terrorists to an end, through increased use of military equipment, traditional means of conflict resolution and technology for surveillance and the development of the political will to flush them out.
“Kidnapping, banditry and terrorism ARE NOT BUSINESS VENTURES as claimed by APC but heinous STATE CRIMES, that is destroying the Nigerian economy, the educational and social future of our children and causing significant social upheavals in society, the PDP Governors admonished.”
The PDP Governors enjoined all Nigerians of goodwill to take advantage of the ongoing registration of voters by the INEC to register to vote, thereby “arming themselves with the necessary tools in the struggle to RESCUE NIGERIA from the APC maladministration.”
“The general public, especially our Youths and Women are implored to use the opportunity of the PDP E-REGISTRATION exercise which will kick off soon, to register as PDP members, while PDP Members should update their membership electronically.”
Present at the meeting are: Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, Chairman; Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Vice Chairman; Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, Gov. Douye Diri of Bayelsa State,
Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Gov. Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde of Oyo State, Gov. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State, Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, Gov. Darius Ishaku of Taraba State, and the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Mahdi Mohd.
